Firms urged to see the potential in advertising

The
UK’s small and medium-sized businesses have had confirmed what their freelance
PR and Marketing consultants have always told them – it really does pay
dividends to advertise.

In fact, boosting their comparatively small
investment in advertising would help SMEs create jobs and growth, demand for
new products and, if they are inclined, more exports.

Such
are the findings in a report from Deloitte, which says despite currently
representing 40% of UK turnover, SMEs are behind just 18% of the UK’s total
advertising spend.

“Advertising
pays, no matter the size of the business,” said Tim Lefroy, the chief executive
of the Advertising Association, which commissioned the report.

“There
are sharp lessons here for entrepreneurs, policymakers and crucially for
advertising itself… [because] the analysis confirmed [that] SMEs that invest in
advertising are much more likely to achieve growth.”

Interestingly
for freelancers whose SME clients are in doubt about the need to invest in ads, such independent
PR & Marketing workers can point to their own businesses as a case in
point.

That’s
because, according to the report, almost two-thirds of ‘micro businesses’ –
which includes one-person freelance consultancies – reported a direct lift in
sales once they advertised.

And smaller
firms that agree to invest in advertising can outpace their larger
counterparts, as the report found that every £1 spent on SME advertising had
eight times the relative impact on growth as £1 spent on advertising for bigger
firms.